Standing Upright in the Winds That Blow

More than arcane legal principles are at stake. Western failure to champion a narrative of international rights and wrongs, rooted in the language of law and legitimacy, would be tragic. Meeting Russia’s aggression with passivity undermines already weakened domestic support for a robust and engaged foreign policy in the U.S. and other Western countries, and it promises to make the world a more lawless and violent place.

Sadly, the failure occurred long hence. Without entering into an exhaustive catalogue of our own violations of international law they include:

bombing Yugoslavia

invading Iraq

torturing prisoners

bombing Libya

I completely understand realist protestations of national interest. However, once you’ve cut your path through the laws, it takes at least a short while before you can stand behind them to protest the actions taken by others in what they see as their own national interests.

And the personal problem for me, a nuclear physicist, is: Why the hell should I contribute to maintaining the hegemony and wars of aggression of the USSA? Though I already speak German, I’m enrolled in studies of Chinese along with Wernher von Braun.